Hot 100 2015 RETAIL STARS: Jo Stroud

Fabulous is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year — a milestone that makes owner Jo Stroud particularly thrilled considering the tough economic times we’re only just emerging from.

She says: “To celebrate our 10th birthday we have launched our first Fabulous own-brand collection, Mantra, which we have created as a team and we are very proud of.”

Jo describes the decision to launch an in-house range as the “start of our diversification from pure retailer into a designer and manufacturer”. She continues: “Having spent the last 10 years seeking out the best new brands and designers that we feel are right for our Fabulous customer base, we are now ideally placed to start creating our own collections to sit alongside existing brands.”

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Elsewhere, Jo is proud of her company’s charitable initiatives, especially its ‘Reloved’ programme, which takes old and broken jewellery and remakes it into new pieces to support Breast Cancer Now. She is also an avid Race for Life runner, and encourages staff and customers at her three stores to get involved and raise funds.

“Owning your own business doesn’t feel like work,” she says. “Many of my close friends started out as customers or business colleagues in the early years of Fabulous, so there is a real crossover in my social life between work and home, which I love.”

When she’s not working you’ll fi ne Jo running or off on another hill-walking adventure, having completed Ben Nevis and some tricky Lake District Fells in recent months. For her picture Jo opted for the Jephson Gardens in Leamington Spa to mark her first store, which opened in the town in 2005.